Acorn Income Fund (AIF): Charles Stanley Group has reduced its stake twice this week, by over 1.5% to 17.95%, though the move does not change the group’s position as the biggest shareholder of the fund. Acorn Income Fund is currently trading at a discount to NAV of 7.71%, compared to the 12 months average of 15%.
BlackRock Absolute Return EUR (BARE): Weiss Asset Management has increased its stake across all three share classes (EUR, GBP, USD) of the hedge fund by almost 6% taking its total holding to over 15%.
British Assets Trust (BSET): Phil Doel will be taking over the management of British Assets Trust in September 2011, when current investment manager Julie Dent retires from fund management. Doel is no stranger to the investment trust structure--he ran F&C UK Select prior to its wind up in 2010. However, the majority of his fund management experience is in UK equities and the mandate for BSET, which will not change, is global equities. That said, his current responsibility as co-manager of F&C UK Equity Income means he's familiar with generating income, which fits with the trust's policy of progressively growing the dividend.
Dexion Equity Alternative (DEA): Shareholders of the hedge fund have approved a proposal to change the company's investment objective and policy. The fund has already started revising its portfolio, following the new objective of investing in US equity long/short hedge funds.
Duet Real Estate Finance (DREF): In response to demand from both new and existing investors, the board is considering raising additional capital through a secondary fundraising. The decision will be subject to market conditions. If the proposed fundraising proceeds, Duet Real Estate Finance plans to invest all raised capital in the European Real Estate Debt Fund.
EPE Special Opportunities (ESO): The private equity fund has applied for the admission of its shares and convertible loan notes to trading on PLUS-quoted market, a specialist market for small cap shares. The company intends for the ordinary shares to be traded on AIM and PLUS, and for the convertible loan notes to be traded solely on PLUS.
Gartmore European Investment Trust (GEO): Henderson has raised its total expense ratios on 14 open-ended Gartmore funds, making the closed-ended counterpart of John Bennett’s European Select Opportunities an even cheaper way of accessing his skills and expertise. The closed-end fund’s TER equaled 1.05% as at the end of 2010, compared with the OEIC vehicle, which now carries a TER of 1.78% versus 1.67% prior to the change. The closed-end vehicle has also beaten the open-end strategy in one-, three-, five- and 10-year periods, returning 7.76% annualised over 10 years (GBP) compared with 6.84% for the Henderson European Select Opps fund.
Pacific Alliance Asia Opps (PAX): PAIM Trading Limited has purchased an additional 4.8% of the Asia Pacific fund with a market cap of £160 million, bringing its total stake to almost 10%.
Standard Life UK Smaller Companies (SLS): It’s a similar story at Harry Nimmo's UK Smaller Companies Investment Trust as to that of Bennett’s Gartmore European fund. Standard Life Investments is set to increase the annual management charge of Nimmo’s UK Smaller Companies OEIC from 1.5% to 1.6% on November 1. AMC is one of the main constituents of the TER, which in this case was 1.19% as of 2010 for the closed-end fund compared with 1.59% as of 2011 for the OEIC. Due to the very poor performance of the closed-end fund in 2001 and 2002, it has lagged the OEIC vehicle on a 10-year total return basis. However, since 2003, the closed-end vehicle has performed better in most calendar years and has outperformed the OEIC strategy in one-, three- and five-year periods.
Schroder UK Growth (SDU): The board of Richard Buxton’s £216 million UK Growth investment trust has axed its performance fee and increased its management fee from 0.4% to 0.65% instead. That still compares favourably to Buxton’s open-ended fund, Schroder UK Alpha Plus, which has an annual management fee of 1.5%. The performance fee was introduced in 1999. In 2006 the investment trust vehicle changed its investment style to mirror Buxton’s open-end fund. Because of a tough 2008, it lagged the open-end vehicle on a three- and five-year basis, but still returned 7% and 4.4% annualised, respectively. An improving trend has convinced the board of directors to revamp the fee structure and fees paid to the manager.
Trade & General Investments: Church House Investment Management is planning to launch an investment trust that focuses on undervalued UK smaller companies. The fund will invest in mature companies that have been profitable and delivered a positive cash flow for sustained periods, but that are now trading with a major discount to the value of their assets. The risk associated with investing in undervalued stocks is that the value will decline even further, a so-called value trap. Deep value funds also do not pay out dividends, as opposed to a more conventional form of value investing. Trade & General Investments will be run by Jeroen Bos, investment director of Church House.
